COMPANY NEWS

THE ALTERNATIVE TO BUYING

The drive to reduce the environmental impacts of industries such as mining and resources, and construction and manufacturing means that the raft of equipment used in these sectors is constantly refined and improved.

Hiring provides these industries with access to the latest equipment and technology, without tying up capital investment and impacting cash flow, explains James Pyne,& Group Manager, Sales at Coates Hire.

"Industries have two choices when using equipment — buy or hire", says Pyne. “Buying uses capital and once equipment has been bought there is also the obligation to look after it. So there is the ongoing cost of servicing and maintenance and putting in place the processes and procedures required to do that. There’s not only a capital cost, but an operating cost, too.”

Hiring rather than buying also provides businesses with access to detailed equipment data that enables staff to better manage equipment costs and hire activity. The safe operation of equipment on a work site is also a priority in the equipment hire arena.

“Safe supply and operation of equipment is at the core of Coates Hire’s capability — helping customers to manage the risks and improve their productivity,” says Pyne.

"We make safety documents attached to our equipment accessible to customers to enable them to more safely operate our plant on their job sites."

Equipment at the core of a business operations is often owned — for example, mining businesses often own their highly specialised haul trucks and draglines, construction firms own their cranes and road surfacing companies usually own their specialised finishing equipment.

"Firstly, the capital you save can be directed towards more strategically important areas of business. Essentially you deploy less capital to achieve the same results," says Pyne.

"Hiring means you also get access to the equipment suppliers ability to invest capital in their fleet, so you end up with high quality equipment with the latest technology. We continually innovate in our fleet to make that technology available to customers.

"Hire customers also have access to the full breadth of our systems and processes that sit behind and underneath what we do, and so help customers manage the risk of equipment operation.

"Those robust processes and systems have been developed from decades of experience and they comply with different regulations across states and territories. Customers don't have to worry about developing and managing their own compliance as they would do for their owned assets."

BUSINESS FLEXIBILITY

Hiring also gives a business flexibility to cope with fluctuating operational demands — if demand suddenly peaks then hiring allows a business to supplement its own equipment to cope with that increased demand.

Logistically, hiring can avert the headaches of moving equipment from location to location. Instead customers can hire the equipment they require from a supplier closer to the site in question. Coates Hire has over 230 branches and satellite locations across Australia and its own maintenance and transport capability to service its diverse customer base.

Equipment maintenance and breakdown are costly issues that can be reduced when businesses hire rather than buy. On average,machinery maintenance accounts for 30 to 50 per cent of the operating costs for the nations

mining industry — an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion per year. The costs and risks associated with equipment maintenance and replacement are removed when hiring.

"Hiring takes the risks out of having the right equipment when and where it is needed. We are responsible for giving a customer a piece of equipment that is reliable. So if a breakdown occurs we fix the problem and get machinery up and running again or we replace it," says Pyne.

Hiring can provide access to specialists with technical expertise who can better identify a customers needs and advise them on the most effective and efficient equipment for the job.. Product specialists can also advise customers on the equipment and technology required to resolve specific operational issues.

"For example, a customer may need generators to power up a mining camp. Rather than simply saying, ‘How many generators do you need?' we have a product specialist who can talk to a customer and design the right set of generators to do what that customer needs them to do," says Pyne.

"Or if a customer has a hole on site that is flooded with water and they need to get rid of that water, a product specialist can work out exactly what type of pump is needed to most effectively drain that hole.

"At our core we provide hire equipment to customers that assists them in managing their productivity, and that is about having safe and reliable equipment and having the latest equipment available where and when customers need it."